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High Blood Pressure/cholesterol Question!

12-13-2013, 08:37 AM

HI! I have hereditary high cholesterol and high blood pressure(thanks parents!)....but, I've always been thin(5'6" 120) and had a healthy diet. 5 months ago I started eating Primal. I went to the dr a couple of days ago and my bp was 113/57. I still take 5mg of Lisinopril, but my dr. is considering taking me off of it after tapering to 2.5mg. I searched thru the PB book and can't really find anything that speaks to lowering blood pressure. I'm happy at the prospect of discontinuing the meds!
The next big test will be checking my cholesterol level which usually hovers around 230 (with a great ratio despite the high#). I'm a little nervous about that since I am definitely consuming more fat (mostly healthy fat). Before going primal I lowered my # by 40 points by lowering my fat intake and increasing oatmeal! Needless to say, I'm not going to be eating any oatmeal.
Anyone else with hereditary high cholesterol??
How did your number change after primal eating?

My mother has had high blood pressure for years. I am glad that I have not inherited that disease because it bugs me enough that I am kind of careful with what I eat. I avoid fatty and oily foods since that contributes a lot to my cholesterol level. I try to watch my weight and lose those extra pounds. I also exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, reduce sodium in my diet, and limit the amount of alcohol I drink. Prevention is always better than trying to find a cure. Unlike myself, my mother finds it challenging to manage her diet properly and watch what she eats.

Comment

Hypertension I've found a lot of help by getting better sodium/magnesium/potassium levels/ratios. For potassium, forget about pill form... 99mg per pill (3% of RDA). What you don't get from food, I use nu-salt... people say it tastes horrible, yeah if you pour it in your hand and lick it it's bitter. I can put tons of it on food and it doesn't taste a darn bit different NaCl table salt. I can actually get almost 100% of my RDA from one baked/boiled potato and this without the potato tasting too salty (I don't regularly dump that much on one, I was just amazed at how well a potato soaks up the taste so kept adding more and more and folding it into boiled potatos until I could start to really taste it strong).

For sodium should be fine if you aren't eating a lot of processed foods, you may actually need to add some good salt to your food if you aren't getting enough from food. As far as salt spiking BP only a small subset of the population is actually salt sensitive and doctors are idiots when they try to put people on low sodium diets, they don't need low sodium they need to just stop eating 15x what their body needs every day by cutting out processed foods.

For magnesium, I take 4 mag-tab (hands down my favorite magnesium source) a day and a nickel-quarter sized blog of Magnegel before bed on my inner forearms. (I don't eat a lot of magnesium rich foods, even if you did it's next to impossible to get what you need).

There is also a book that gives semi-decent recommendations for other things to investigate (I've only noticed benefit from some of them myself) Clinical Natural Medicine Handbook, Chris D. Meletis, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 2006... you want Chapter 19 - Taming High Blood Pressure Naturally. Here is the paragraph on what they investigated, if you want to read more on each compound then find the text.

The first intervention for hypertensive treatment common to all fields of medicine is to incorporate diet and lifestyle changes, such as increased exercise, increased consumption of magnesium and potassium, and a low-sodium diet. Beyond these first steps to set the foundation, the realm of specific supplementation protocols are individually customized and frequently include coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) berry extract, olive (Olea europaea) leaf extract, garlic (Allium sativum), coleus (Coleus forskohlii), omega-3 fatty acids, and L-arginine. Clinical practice routinely demonstrates that a multifactorial approach of lifestyle changes combined with appropriate supplements can make a significant impact on hypertension. The ‘‘bottom line’’ when creating a therapeutic intervention for a patient who has hypertension is to achieve a normotensive state safely with as few side effects as possible, while supporting overall cardiovascular health in a manner that is sustainable for a lifetime.

If you wanted to investigate those the book recommends, out of the ones I've tried I noticed some improvement with:
** coq10 - I'd look at something that is Ubiquinol as it's more bioavilable, less goes farther like Jarrow Formulas Ubiquinol
** hawthorn - worked alright for me (temporary effect though) if I held it sublingually. I used Nature's Answer
** garlic - I added more to my food and used some capsules (don't know which, garlic is garlic)